Parents trust me to teach their children how to dance and it is an honor to train younger dancers and performers. What comes first in training an artist is a person's physical, mental, and emotional health.This blog discusses the importance of nutrition in building the healthy bones. Sometimes dancers take a mind over matter approach in training because we push our bodies to incredible limits. We have to be present in our bodies our entire lifetime, so we should make it a point to keep a our body happy. We need to check in with our bodies, to take the time to feel what is happening with our instrument. This is the best chance we have to remain strong and capable.

Humans have the best chance of building our strongest bones when we are young — because until age 30 we are growing bone mass. After age 30 we begin to lose bone at a higher rate than we formed it. Most of our bone mass is formed at a very specific age: 11 – 14 in girls and 13 – 17 in boys. Forming bone mass is extremely important for your entire life, because you are less likely to break bones later in life if you have developed strong bones in your youth.

As dancers we really use our bodies, and place a lot of stress on our bones. One of the amazing things about our body is that it is that if we get injured we are designed to repair ourselves. Our bones maintain their healthy structure by containing cells that remove damaged bone and replace it with healthy bone. This is known as Bone Turnover.

Dance is a form of art and exercise that uses an enormous amount of energy. The energy we expend must be replaced with healthy carbohydrates and fats so that our body can function normally. We need the best fuel for our bodies. We need Calcium and many nutrients, including Vitamin D, to support our working bodies. Dancers who do not consume enough fats and calories risk creating a hormonal imbalance, which can lead to lose of bone mass.

So here's where this gets really tricky: the human body is formed to maintain a certain level of calcium, and if you don't consume the correct level your body will take the calcium from bone, which will lead to decreased bone density. Dancers should get their calcium from sources such as dairy, broccoli, almonds, dark left greens, and other vegetables.

Although our culture puts a lot of pressure on us to appear a certain way I can promise you that the most beautiful dancer is the healthy one. A person who glows with health and joy is the one you want to watch onstage. Every body is beautiful - and everybody can find a home in dance.

"Although our culture puts a lot of pressure on us to appear a certain way I can promise you that the most beautiful dancer is the healthy one." Lovely comment - I had a friend who described the world of pro ballet and what a struggle it is to love your body and self..

It is really true. As a young dancer there was tremendous pressure to "show the bones", but anytime a young girl or boy loses or gains weight quickly we should be concerned. Dancer with larger bodies can be tremendous if they embrace their physicality. Thank you so much for reading my very first blog!